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Friday, 25 April 2014

Linux provides two ways to handle things, one as a normal user and other as a root user. Most people prefer to keep the root privileges to themselves and create a user account for everybody else. Root user has all the privileges to handle the system while any normal user has restricted access to many things. In this article, I am going to tell you how to Add or Remove user accounts in Linux.

You can do it using either the command line or through the graphical way.

Adding a new user

$ sudo adduser <new_user_name>

This will first prompt you for your password, and then
- add a new user with name <new_user_name>
- add a new group with the same name as the user
- create a home directory (/home/<new_user_name>)
- add a few files to this directory (.bashrc, .bash_logout, .profile)
- asks for the password for the new account, twice
- asks for other information (full name, room number, phone numbers)

To add password to the new_user_name,

$ sudo passwd <new_user_name>

Changing the default shell for a user (say to /bin/sh)

$ sudo usermod -s /bin/sh <username>

Now, when the user gets a new terminal, it will open with the shell /bin/sh

Deleting a user

$ sudo deluser <username>

The user will be deleted, but his/her home will remain on the system

$ sudo addgroup <groupname>

will add a new group to the system

$ sudo adduser <username> <groupname>

will add a user to a group

$ sudo deluser <username> <groupname>

will remove a user from a group

changing group and owner for a file

$ sudo chown <username> <filename>$ sudo chgrp <groupname> <filename>

Note: Sudo command allows a normal user to run commands as a root user under Linux/Unix.

Graphical Way:

You can add or remove user accounts in Linux through the graphical way also.